on our first day we decided to see what the city of borkum had to offer. borkum has around 5100 inhabitants, so it's indeed more of a big village than a big city. the paths are very close-knit, you are in nature in just a few minutes and after a few days it feels like you know every nook and cranny already. but borkum is really charming and has a lot of activities to offer, we didn't have a single day where we felt bored or tired of the city and island, thanks to long walks around the island, meeting up with my friend, going out and trying the specialties of east frisia, boat trips to seal sandbanks and bus trips on the only big road on borkum ( which is actually almost car free - you only can drive to your house and back to the harbour, so it's really useless to take your car with you, unless you live there all year long. ) we wanted to see even more, but due to the weather oftentimes things we booked were canceled. which didn't prevent us from exploring this beautiful island nonetheless. borkum city has a really cute inner city, it evokes a feeling of late 19th century living and i was especially reminded of the novels effi briest by theodor fontane & the rider on the white horse by theodor storm ( they are both situated in a marine setting, effi's story in farther pomerania - baltic sea, and the rider's in north frisia - north sea ). as a kid i loved the rider's story - it was eerie & scary, it had nightmare potential - a perfect novel to read in the darkest of autumn. effi briest is more of a social novel and i only recently read it and loved the softness of fontane's words that were equally accusatory towards society and its boundaries. and in both novels the surroundings of the time were beautifully showcased and whenever i'm at the coast or near the sea i am always reminded of them, because the scenes i get to see today up there are still remnants of those past times. these novels showed me what life was like in a coastal area and i can vividly reimagine some of the scenes in those landscapes that often still look frozen in time.
ah, i'm trailing off, let's continue our borkum visit on day 2.
there's an old cemetery in the middle of the town near the old light house and the gravestones were really beautiful. i especially was smitten with the skull ones.
being so near to the netherlands brought some natives to borkum as well. many people on borkum have dutch ancestors.
a whale jaw. borkum was a whale hunting island, many guys went to the open sea to take part of the big whalings and returned as rich men. there are a few jaw fences around borkum, quite a morbid thing to see.
strange little buds.
i just love brick stone houses.
one of the aforementioned whale jaw fences. they are landmarked.
structure of a whale jaw bone.
the old town bristles with wilhelminian era houses. in the far back is the new light house.
in front of the police station was this cute sculpture - kids standing/sitting in front and trying to spell polizei.
on our way to the beach we found this scrap metal sculpture. i really loved this.
a gull and a crab.
i brought shawn with me ( he's my constant sea companion, i once found him on a beach by the baltic sea and he's been a trusted photography motive ever since. his son timmy is also part of this, i have a backpack of him and he's always with me on my marine trips ^^ )
the skyline of borkum. these are the biggest hotels and clinics ( borkum is known as a climatic spa and many allergic people or people with asthmatic problems come here to cure themselves. )
the light house is always in the middle of it all. you can even climb it. we did that on our last day, and it was quite a sight ( even though a little foggy and windy )
wilhelminian grandeur.
i loved this gull sitting on the mini sand mountain :)
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